Tuesday, November 6, 2012

NJ School/Sandy Update

Not much education news to report on this Election Day. As New Jersey slowly rebuilds after Hurricane Sandy – 612,000 households are still without electricity – schools are starting to reopen. Yesterday 225 districts reopened for the first time since October 26th; about 265 are still closed.

In Union Beach, school officials are working to find temporary classrooms for 720 students after the small town's single school was flooded by Hurricane Sandy,In Moonachie, where many families were rescued from flooded homes by boats, military vehicles or dump trucks, parents are preparing to send their children to school in nearby Wood-Ridge for about a month.

And in Lincoln Park, schools will open for a half day today — without electrity — as officials try to resume classes after losing six days to the storm. No lunch will be served and kids have been warned to "dress appropriately," since boilers won’t be working…With power out in much of the town, Grube said, "many children are living in houses that are colder than our buildings."

From NJ Spotlight: “In my 40 years in education in New Jersey, I have never seen anything like this,” said Lawrence Feinsod, executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association and a longtime district and county superintendent. “Nothing like this, it’s by far the worst.”